Bob Richey was a wide-eyed 23-year-old sitting on the bench for his first collegiate job as an assistant at Charleston Southern when a Big South team came along that was so good it expanded Richey’s belief in how good a mid-major could be.
In his final season at Winthrop, Gregg Marshall led the Eagles to an undefeated conference title and a league tournament championship, winning the 19 games by an average of 16 points. They earned a No. 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament and beat Notre Dame by 10 points in the first round.
“It was just an unbelievable mid-major basketball team,” Richey said.